Gran Turismo 5 is THE automotive simulation on PS3 with over 1000 vehicles. Unmatched driving physics precision, immense game modes. Imperfect in structure but the pinnacle of auto simulation.
Your verdict
Category
Racing2 players3+
Split screen
Description
Reference racing simulation from Polyphony Digital realizing years of development with plethoric content for PS3. Published by Sony, released in Europe in November 2010. Over 1000 licensed cars, 71 circuits, photo mode, licensed World Tour championships, 16-player online multiplayer, and reference realistic physics.
Gran Turismo 5 review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
Almost photographic reproduction of the cars, finely chiselled circuits and a day/night cycle with dynamic weather: GT5 aims for a clinical realism of cold elegance. The Photo Travel mode showcases vehicles modelled to the millimetre. One caveat: the fleet splits between sumptuously detailed 'Premium' cars and 'Standard' cars carried over from GT4, with a markedly more dated look.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Refining your racing lines by the tenth, collecting hundreds of cars and climbing a demanding career sets up a quest for perfection that always calls for the next race. Earning enough to treat yourself to a new machine rewards every podium. The loading times and the rigid progression grate, but the precision of the driving and the automotive passion hold you for the long haul.
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Filling a garage with hundreds of licensed cars, climbing the licences and World Tour championships, tweaking every setup circuit after circuit: Polyphony Digital's simulation plays out like a long-haul career. Photo mode, sixteen-player multiplayer and the chase for gold on every event keep pushing the horizon back. A benchmark whose sheer breadth of content remains legendary.
Sony's flagship racing simulation, long awaited and packed with content, which brought automotive realism to the PS3. Sold in colossal numbers, it stays everywhere and without value, issued in many revisions. Its collector interest is heritage-based, that of a console pillar, more than a scarcity matter, except for tracking the many pressing versions.
Better with friends
An automotive simulation of exemplary rigor, where mastering lines and tuning the cars rewards patience and precision. The competition lives in tenth-of-a-second consistency, far from arcade chaos, in a technical and respectful rivalry. Local split-screen pits two demanding drivers, while the era's online depends on servers whose longevity is no longer guaranteed.
Is Gran Turismo 5 still worth playing in 2026?
Gran Turismo 5 remains a benchmark of the racing simulation on PS3, boasting a colossal catalogue of over a thousand vehicles and a driving physics of remarkable precision. Mastering a car on the edge of grip delivers a satisfaction few games matched at the time. Its structure, however, suffers from a certain unevenness, between the two-tier modelling of premium and standard cars and sometimes laborious menus. The title was since refined by GT6. But for the fan of demanding driving, Polyphony's simulation summit keeps real value, especially in its enriched editions.
